Systems are known that electrolyze water containing alkali salts to produce acidic electrolyzed water and alkaline electrolyzed water. Acidic electrolyzed water, which typically has a pH between about 2.0 and about 3.5, is a strong sterilizing agent that is increasingly used in a variety of sanitizing applications including in the medical, agricultural and food processing industries and in other institutional environments. The alkaline or basic electrolyzed water also has a sterilizing as well as a detergent effect and is useful in cleaning oil and grease stains. Sodium chloride is commonly used as the alkali salt that is dissolved in the water because it produces acids and bases that are environmentally friendly, potent and low in cost.
Commercially available water electrolyzing systems have a number of drawbacks. One such system has only a single ion membrane that separates the brine from the electrolyzed water. Such systems tend to have high levels of salt in the acidic solution which can lead to scale buildup and reduce the shelf life of the acidic solution. Another system is membrane-less and depends on removing the acidic and alkaline solutions at precise geometric points along the flow of the brine.
Yet another system uses a three chamber structure including an anode chamber, a cathode chamber and an intermediate chamber arranged between the anode and cathode chambers. The intermediate chamber is separated on each side from the anode and cathode chambers by an electrode plate, a membrane and a rigid plate construction. Each of the electrode plates has a plurality of openings therein to allow positive or negative ions to pass into the anode and cathode chambers respectively. Each of the rigid plates has striped depressions and projections along with a number of openings to channel the water in the intermediate chamber to the areas of the openings in the electrode plates.
While the three chamber structure effectively minimizes salt in the acidic output, this system has a complex structure of rigid guide plates that can impede the free flow of ions into the anode and cathode chambers limiting the efficiency of the system. The openings in the electrodes also has an adverse effect on the consistency of the electric fields further hampering the efficiency of the system.